In recent years, various types of food bars containing mixtures of ingredients held together with a suitable binder have become popular as snacks, healthy treats or quick energy foods. For example, Michnowski, U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,475, discloses a snack bar composed of ingredients including corn syrup, rice cereal, soy protein and peanut butter which may be coated with a chocolate compound coating. Michnowski mixed liquid components, added minor dry ingredients, mixed again, and then added major dry ingredients, mixed to homogeneity and extruded into rectangular dies at room temperature, cut into individual serving sizes and coated prior to packaging in film.
Granola bars are another popular type of cold formed food bar consisting of dry materials held together by a binder. Granola bars typically consists of a major portion of granola, i.e., rolled oats and/or wheat, and minor amounts of fruit and/or nuts. These bars are commonly held together or cemented by a baked cookie-type matrix comprising crumbs of the cereal product saturated with sugar and vegetable oils. Similar bars replace a part of all of the granola with other processed cereals such as puffed wheat or rice. Such bars are typically dry and friable in texture. Such fat-occluded food compositions are disclosed in Kelly et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,055,669.
Other handheld snack bars have crust portions and smooth creamy fillings. See, for example, Dally et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,916.
Handheld food bars such as the above described products fill a consumer demand for on-the-go snacks, be they nutritious or indulgent or both. Such products are typically so-called “single serve” products, meaning that the products are individually wrapped as a packaged good, and one such product constitutes one serving portion.
Cookie bits have been suggested for inclusion in various food items, such as chocolate bars and ice cream, with the bits being employed as a substitute for more common inclusions such as fruits and nuts. See Crothers, U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,669. Crothers, however, utilized relatively small amounts of such inclusions, from 8% –10% by weight based on the total weight of the foodstuff containing the inclusions, and the inclusions utilized by Crothers were not fragile pieces, the breakage of which was controlled.